27. The Ocean - 'Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic'

The second part of a colossal musical endeavour celebrating the Phanerozoic geological period (and you thought that Metal was dumb and obsessed with beer and breasts). This is high concept Prog Metal. Intricately structured, ferociously intellectual and full of thousands and thousands of individual moving parts. It is a dense, complex record that rewards multiple listens (were you expecting anything else?).

The picture-scape that the band manage to create with essentially a pile of notes is frankly astounding. The scale and ambition of the music matches the scale and ambition of the narrative. With massive flourishes of guitar and ever-changing time signatures they have produced music that is as multifarious as the vast time periods that each track represents. A clever, complicated and awe-inspiring record. Stunning.